Text: T1307; 佛說北斗七星延命經

Summary

Identifier T1307 [T]
Title 佛說北斗七星延命經 [T]
Date 1281-1313 [Franke 1990]

There may be translations for this text listed in the Bibliography of Translations from the Chinese Buddhist Canon into Western Languages. If translations are listed, this link will take you directly to them. However, if no translations are listed, the link will lead only to the head of the page.

There are resources for the study of this text in the SAT Daizōkyō Text Dabatase (Saṃgaṇikīkṛtaṃ Taiśotripiṭakaṃ).

Assertions

Preferred? Source Pertains to Argument Details

No

[T]  T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014.

婆羅門僧將到此經唐朝受持.

Entry author: Michael Radich

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  • Title: 佛說北斗七星延命經
  • Date: Tang
  • Identifier: T1307

Yes

[Franke 1990]  Franke, Herbert. "The Taoist Elements in the Buddhist Great Bear Sūtra." Asia Major, series III, 1 (1990): 75-111.

"...a non-canonical Buddhist text that invokes the gods of the seven starts of Ursa Major." Under the Yuan, translated into Mongolian, Tibetan and Uighur. "I try to demonstrate that at least some sections of the Chinese text are derived from Taoist literature." "It is certainly no coincidence that the Buddhist texts where our star names appear (Taisho nos. 1305, 1306, 1306, 1310 and 1311) have been reprinted from Japanese manuscripts and editions. None of these texts is, according to the colophons, attested earlier than the twelfth-century manuscripts found in Japanese monasteries." "[T1306] quotes a Book of Destiny (Lu-ming shu 錄命書), which shows some relationship with the description in chüan 6 of the Pao-p'u tzu....The borrowing from Taoism is even more obvious in [T1311]." "I...venture to suggest that a Buddhist Pei-tou ching, a prototype of Taisho no. 1307, was composed after 1281 but prior to 1313. Its compiler adopted elements of the Great Bear cult as found in Taoist texts and gave it the Buddhist form of a pseudo-sūtra purportedly preached by the Buddha himself..."

Entry author: Michael Radich

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  • Date: 1281-1313

No

[Panglung 1991]  Panglung, Jampa L. "Die tibetische Version des Siebengestirn-sūtras." In Tibetan History and Language: Studies Dedicated to Uray Géza on his Seventieth Birthday, herausgegeben von Ernst Steinkellner, 399-416. Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien, 1991.

Panglung states that the canonicity of the Tibetan version of the "Seven Stars Sūtra" ("Big Dipper Sūtra", "Ursa Major Sūtra"), the sMe bdun zhes bya bai' skar ma'i mdo, is controversial. The text is incorporated into the Peking version of the canon only, and is also found in manuscripts in Berlin, and in dhāraṇī collections (gZungs bsdus). In the Peking canon it is inserted between two other sūtras which are regarded as apocrypha (sTag ma'i rtogs pa brjod pa, Mig bcu bnyis pa'i mdo). Panglung presents an edition and translation of the Tibetan text.

Entry author: Michael Radich

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No

[Funayama 2013]  Funayama Tōru 船山徹. Butten wa dō Kan’yaku sareta no ka: sūtora ga kyōten ni naru toki 仏典はどう漢訳されたのか スートラが経典になるとき. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten: 2013. — 140

Funayama mentions in passing that the 北斗七星延命經 T1307 is an apocryphon, which contains discussion of birth year in relation to the twelve "[earthly] branches" 十二支, and folk belief accompanied by Daoist zhoufu 呪符.

Entry author: Michael Radich

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